Targeted TV Ads Closer to Reality, Entrepreneurs Say

Television, with an advertising market that dwarfs any part of the digital landscape, has long been an attractive target for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

Many companies set out to bring Internet-style, targeted advertisements to that market, but after more than a decade of trying, both by startups and tech giants, no one’s yet taken a significant chunk of it.

“The irony, after so many years, is that the online ad world never really got to the adult table of advertising,” said Dave Morgan, who founded Tacoda, one of the earliest behavioral targeting companies and Real Media, an early ad network. The problem, he says, is that so many tech companies were looking to provide the perfect way to deliver television ads and they let that get in the way of providing a better way.